Finding Food and Love

“I, MAKE EGG ROLLS.” There is  some deep satisfaction about making your own Chinese food. For me, it has to be, that when I order take out, I really have no idea what I’m eating especially when it comes to egg rolls. They could put anything in there, fry it up and call it food. Now, I’m not saying that I won’t gladly eat and enjoy, I just wonder sometimes…is that chicken, vege, beef, all of the above or none of the above? If it’s none of the above, please don’t tell me.

Makes 20 egg rolls. Recipe adapted from Steamy Kitchen. I really don’t need to make 50 egg rolls for dinner, ever.

INGREDIENTS:
Filling
3/4 pound ground pork
1/2 tablespoon soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon cornstarch
1/8 teaspoon sugar

1/4 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 head of small cabbage (about 10 ounces)
2 carrots
4-6 fresh mushrooms (shitake, portobello or even plain and simple mushrooms will do)

1/2 tablespoon high-heat cooking oil
2 cloves garlic, finely minced
1/2 teaspoon fresh grated ginger
1/2 tablespoon rice wine vinegar
1 tablespoons soy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sesame oil
1/4 teaspoon salt
Freshly ground black pepper

20 egg roll wrappers, at room temperature, covered with a damp towel (egg roll wrappers can be found in most grocery stores in the fresh vege section and surprisingly Walmart has them too)

Cornstarch Slurry
1 tablespoon cornstarch (or flour) mixed
1/4 cup of cool water

Oil, for frying

DIRECTIONS:
Marinate the ground pork with the soy sauce, cornstarch, sugar and sesame oil for at least 10 minutes at room temperature.

In the meantime, shred the cabbage and carrots with a cheese grater and slice the mushrooms into thin strips.

Heat cooking oil in a large frying pan over high heat. When hot, add the garlic and ginger and fry until fragrant, 15-30 seconds. Add the pork and stir fry until no longer pink. Add the cabbage, carrots and the mushrooms and stir fry for 1 minute, until the vegetables are softened. Add the rice wine, soy sauce, sugar, sesame oil, salt and black pepper. Continue to stir fry for another minute.

Remove the filling to a baking sheet and spread out to cool. Prop up one end of the baking sheet so that it tilts and will allow all the moisture to drain to one end. Let cool for 15 minutes.

Discard all of the accumulated juices. Use paper towels to blot the filling to get rid of the extra oil or juice.

Make the cornstarch slurry by mixing together corn starch and water in a small bowl. Keep close, we are ready to wrap the egg rolls.

Apologies for the pictures in the wrapping process, hands covered in egg roll + trying not to get camera too dirty = blurry crappy pictures but, I think you get the idea.

Place only 1 tablespoon of filling on the corner of your egg roll wrapper.

Roll up the corner until you reach the middle of the wrapper.

Tightly fold the sides towards the middle. Brush a little of the cornstarch slurry on the flap a the end and continue to roll.  Press to make sure that cornstarch slurry holds.

Keep the rolled egg rolls in neat, single layer and covered with plastic wrap to prevent drying.

Refrigerate up to 4 hours until ready to fry or freeze.

To fry the egg rolls, fill a pot with 2 inches of cooking oil. Heat the oil to 350°F. I just set it to medium-high heat level and watched it. Once it started to “spit”, I turned it down a bit so it wouldn’t make a mess. Probably not the best way but it gets the job done. Gently slide in or lower the egg rolls, frying 4-6 at a time, turning occassionaly until golden brown about 1 1/2 minutes. Place on wire rack to drain and cool.

If you freeze your egg rolls,  do not defrost them before you cook them – just add them to the oil frozen. Tack on an additional 1 1/2 minutes to the frying time.

Serve with soy sauce or my favorite, Trader Joe’s Sweet Chili Sauce. Yum.